|
By Jove - I finally got it! Cue music to My Fair Lady!
I've been struggling with the concept presented in the 'Eat what you Love' book about quantity and how, in my own summary (not word for word - the author expresses it more clearly ) the reader is reminded that their stomach is the size of their fist and therefore, the meal should not be, before chewing, larger than twice the size of the fist to avoid feeling 'uncomfortably full.'
I argued that with 'my salads'. Based on the saying somewhere 'never apologize for vegetables' of all things I've been eating mindfully in sensible portions, I felt a salad 'shouldn't apply'. I made my salad in the same size bowl you usually use to let bread rise - HUGE. And ate without abandon. I felt like 'gee, even the entire thing, with all of the spinach, tomato, cucumber, etc is only ### cals so nothing wrong there.'
Finally though - it occurred to me (( yeah, it took a while but eventually the bulb lit up )) this was much like when I look at the nutrition label on a food and go 'hmmm, XXcals per serving and there are Xservings in this package so even if I eat the WHOLE thing my cal total will be 'XX' and I can live with that.'
Come on - 'fess up, I can't be the only one who does that.
But this past week - after arguing mentally with the author for several weeks, I finally got it.
By calculating the entire cal portion of a whole 'thing', I was already setting myself up to EAT the whole thing because I was envisioning that, accepting it, preparing for it.
No longer was I eating to satisfy my hunger, I was actually telling myself 'go ahead, eat more than you need because your RDI can bear the total.'
And with the Salad - same thing. So WHAT if my 10gallon hat full of salad was less than 500 cals - why did I feel the need to eat THAT much??
AND... FINALLY - and this is why I write this crap down to get it out of my head and somewhere I can remember it - I reflected on my journal a couple of weeks or so ago when I referred to how I would eat when I was slim -- overeat, gorge actually -- because that's what I always 'imagined' slim people did: eat whatever, however, as much as they wanted. And I had finally realized how wrong that was. Yes, slim people eat as much as they want - but they don't make a pie eating contest out of every meal.
So with the salad - obviously I was still, though unconsciously, separating food into categories as 'good & bad' or 'high cal / low cal' - although I 'felt' I have allowed myself to eat 'whatever' I want now so that I don't feel deprived - if I still hold in my mind there are 'some' foods to be limited where others are unlimited, I was just setting myself up for repeated failure.
Because SOME day I would find myself with a lower resolve or grow complacent or find myself thinking 'what the heck, I'm slim now, I can eat a whole pizza or a whole double meat, double cheese burger until my sides are aching from the quantity' because I've kept my body used to eating too much while I was trying to get slim by eating too much salad.
And then, I'd be in trouble. I'd be right back where I found myself every single time in the past as I put the weight back on. Binging and unable to stop because the high quantity just felt right even with the wrong food.
So - I'd given up the salad festival about two weeks ago while I sorted this out. And I was finally able to get it. I got it. I got it. I got it.
Sorry for the repeating but this is something that I've battled for four decades.. the WTF happened everytime the weight loss failed.
Another stupid 'stinkin thinkin' gone. Another cobweb cleared. Another clearer understanding of how to make this successful and for the rest of my life.
Thank you for reading.
Bella
Diet Calendar Entries for 24 February 2013:
|
1031 kcal
|
Fat: 34.05g | Prot: 50.43g | Carb: 134.77g.
Breakfast: Odwalla Super. Lunch: Sunsweet 60 Prunes, Mixed Greens Turnips, Select Harvest French Onion. Dinner: Salsa, Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Bar, Salmon Schwans. Snacks/Other: Spectrum Flax, Cinnamon Chex, Simply Kraft Cottage Cheese. more...
|
|